News

24 July 2025
SHOWCASE recently published a fifth practice abstract on the EU CAP Network, highlighting the effectiveness of green covers in stone fruit orchards to boost biodiversity, even under intensive farm management. Authored by project partners conducting research on 15 stone fruit farms in Spain, the study compared areas with planted green covers between...
24 July 2025
Agricultural intensification has increased crop yields but caused biodiversity loss, pest outbreaks and environmental damage, threatening essential ecosystem services like natural pest control. In response, the EU and Switzerland are promoting sustainable farming practices—such as organic farming, habitat conservation and reduced pesticide use—to enhance...
16 July 2025
Biodiversity continues to decline despite past conservation efforts, prompting new policies like the EU Biodiversity Strategy, which require national ecosystem condition mapping. However, such mapping, especially for croplands, relies heavily on proxy indicators due to a lack of primary biodiversity data, raising concerns about accuracy. To address...
03 July 2025
As agriculture expands to meet rising demands, biodiversity and ecosystem services often suffer—especially in vineyards, which cover over 7 million hectares globally and still depend heavily on pesticides. Yet, organically managed vineyards in natural habitat-rich landscapes can host diverse communities of pest predators like birds and bats, which provide...
12 June 2025
At the 2025 SIBECOL-AEET Meeting, held under the banner of advancing ecological science for sustainability, Dr. Ignasi Bartomeus took part in a session focused on the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027 and its potential to enhance biodiversity through adaptive management and evidence-based evaluation. The session, titled “Evaluating...
30 May 2025
On 22 May 2025, Dr. Ignasi Bartomeus, a SHOWCASE partner, joined a panel at the Innovation Through Communication webinar to explore the evolving role of scientists in translating research into real-world impact. Hosted by Food4Sustainability, the event brought together scientists, journalists and project communicators to discuss how to better leverage...
22 May 2025
Habitat fragmentation in agricultural landscapes poses a serious threat to biodiversity. While measures such as hedgerows and wildflower strips can improve ecological connectivity, little is known about how farmers decide where to implement them. To address this knowledge gap, a SHOWCASE study, conducted by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural...
02 May 2025
Pollinators are the unsung heroes of agriculture, quietly sustaining ecosystems and food systems alike. But how do we protect them in landscapes dominated by intensive farming? This is the question that drove a SHOWCASE early-career researcher, Gabriella Bishop, from Wageningen University towards her field of PhD research - a journey into the heart...
24 March 2025
SHOWCASE partner Dr Ignasi Bartomeus recently co-authored an article in the prominent Spanish newspaper El País discussing the Natural Restoration Law and the importance of conserving biodiversity. As the article mentions, humanity is facing an unprecedented ecological crisis, with ecosystems rapidly degrading due to pollution, climate change...